The Family History Through the Alphabet Challenge has been rather, er, challenging so far… I was particularly stumped with the letter “J” and I wondered if I should talk about the Joy of genealogy or the Journeys I’ve taken during my research. But the fact is that “J” is actually quite prominent in my family – that is, as the starting letter of names! The J-names are hanging on every branch of my family tree. Sure, there are some Maria’s and Anna’s (and tons of Maria Anna’s and Anna Maria’s in Bavaria) as well as several Elizabeth’s. For the men I have a few named Louis, Karl, and Ignatz or Ignacy. But one letter is prominent by far – the letter J. Therefore, J is for J Names!

Starting with my father’s paternal side, there is my grandfather James. James named my father James, who in turned named his son James, who in turn used James as a middle name for one of his sons. My grandfather James named his daughter Jean after his sister Jean. His brother, Joseph, named one daughter Jean and another Josephine, and his son is named John Joseph. The father of James, Jean, and Joseph? John (Jan in Polish).

Moving to the next branch of the family tree, grandfather James married Margaret. She can be forgiven for her lack of a J-name by the sheer number of J’s in her ancestry. Her brother Joseph was named after their father, Joseph, while brother Julius was named after Uncle Julius. Joseph’s father, Joseph, had a father named Joseph. In fact, if it wasn’t for the elder Joseph’s father, Jakob (son of Joseph!), there would be an unbroken line of seven generations of men named Joseph Bergmeister starting in 1763 until today with my 20-something cousin in Texas. Oh, and the father of the Joseph born in 1763? John (Johann in German).

On my mother’s side, neither grandparent has a J-name, but my mom’s middle name is Jane. My middle name, Joan, is the same as my mom’s sister Joan. Their father’s grandfather was named Joseph (Józef), the son of John (Jan). Their father’s other grandfather? John (Jan in Polish).

Moving to the final branch, my mother’s mother’s family, my great-grandfather was named – how did you guess? Joseph! He named a daughter Jane and one of his sons had a Joseph and a Joyce. My great-grandmother has sisters named Jane and Josephine. The sisters’ dad’s dad was Józef and their mom’s dad was Jan.

Really, I’m not making this up…it’s all in on the family tree!

Sure, there are some other names on the family tree, but none come close to the amount of J-names. Oddly enough, I have yet to uncover a single surname that starts with the letter J. Maybe I will find one in my research one day. If I do, I can place a sure bet that if I find a man with a “J” surname, his first name will almost certainly be Joseph or John and if it’s a woman she’ll likely be Jane, Jean, Joan, or Josephine!